Good-hearted

To the three very kind-hearted men and the two very polite police officers who helped a lady in distress, who had landed in a hole on Stenton Avenue at Cricket Road in a driving rainstorm, I can’t thank you enough.

First one, then two others stopped, at about a quarter of four on Friday, July 23. Soon the police were on the scene, directing traffic. The men brought sandbags and wooden planks, but it soon became obvious that only a tow truck would do the job. We had wonderful support from the five men who helped us, as well as my daughter, who worked nearby. Every one who was held up was very patient. We drove away knowing that there are many good-hearted people in the world. Many thanks.

Elaine Stulb
Penllyn

Response

Rudy Sprinkle, in his extensive “A War Based on Lies” (Local, July 29), simply ignores my core question: Would he be so avidly anti-war if the millions of brown Muslims who “disappeared” under Saddam Hussein, and who also were “real people … (whose) children (were) real,” had instead been white Christians and Jews? May I add that one of Saddam’s “amusements” was to make his enemies watch as he tortured, maimed and no doubt killed many of their children.

William Will
Chestnut Hill

Compassionate god

President Bush has suggested, “Whenever I need advice, I don’t go to my biological father, I go to my ‘Heavenly Father.”

Thus, he suggests that he believes God agreed with him to make war with Iraq, because they had Weapons of Mass Destruction.” Sadly, today the quagmire we find ourselves in Iraq has cost the lives of over 900 young men and women, and has seen thousands wounded, many permanently crippled or blind.

I, too, often ask my God for advice. Thus, as I held many patients dying of cancer, including my own dear wife, (I was a volunteer-care-giver over 60 years), God put these words into my mouth, to give peace to my patients, “Tell the dying, that they are passing into a wondrous Paradise, and be near Me.” This from a compassionate god.

Gerald Samkofsky
Chestnut Hill

Wrong god

Has anyone noted the error in the picture caption accompanying the 22 July article by Pack, Jr. regarding the Rockefeller Center book? The statue in the lower plaza of the complex is of Prometheus, not Neptune. The object in is hand is fire, which he has stolen from Heaven and is bringing to mankind.

William F. O’Keefe, Jr.
Chestnut Hill

Many thanks

The staff and campers of the Grumblethorpe Historic House “Hands on History” Day Camp would like to thank Kilian’s Hardware for their very generous donation of a large stainless steel cooking pot. One of the aims of the day camp is to get children excited about growing and cooking food — not only as it was done in the “olden days,” but as it can be done in their own lives today. The cooking pot will be used in teaching children numerous “old-fashioned” cooking projects such as making homemade jam, blueberry syrup and green tomato chutney.

On Fridays, through August 6, the public is invited to stop by the Old Fashioned Lemonade & Homemade Jam stand set up by the campers at Germantown Avenue and Queen Lane — you’ll see that our new kettle is put to good use!

Many thanks again to Kilian’s Hardware.

Brandi Levine
Grumblethorpe Day Camp Director

Little kindnesses are rare

Every so often, a quiet kindness occurs in our community that needs to be noticed.

Last week I came home to find an envelope addressed to me from El Quetzal, one of our cute boutiques on the Hill.

It contained one of my blank checks that I must have accidentally dropped on the street when I was making a sidewalk purchase.

Ellie Beal, the store manager, picked it up and walked it to my home.

I didn’t know I had dropped it, but more importantly, thank you Ellie for your thoughtfulness … I will pay it forward.

Name withheld upon request